what God is telling you

Today we read from Judges 6:1-40 in the One Year Bible. Once more, the Israelites are doing evil things, and God is letting nearby tribes come and mess with them to get their attention. Finally, after seven years of this (at least it's better than the twenty years it took last time), they call out to God and He sends them a judge to teach them what they're doing wrong.

How does this apply to us today? Well, we're often tempted to think that God is doing this to us. We sometimes think that when things go wrong in our lives, that God is punishing us, or testing us, or trying to get our attention. In a way, we find ourselves in kind of an adversarial relationship with Him. We think that we have to protect what WE want from what HE demands of us.

What we need to realize, and for some of us it takes a lifetime to come to this realization, is that God really truly wants what is best for us. Not best for us like "eat those vegetables that you hate because their good for you," kind of best for us. More like the "best for us" that brings us the most joy that life can possibly bring us.

Now, that joy WILL come with some suffering. Even if (sometimes ESPECIALLY if) we are following Him closely. If you study the lives of the saints, you'll see that suffering comes hand in hand with being close to Jesus. But He brings great joy in the middle of the suffering... and often He takes the suffering away shortly thereafter.

So don't think that just because something's wrong that He's out to get you. He wants what's best for you. So cooperate! It goes much better that way.

God, thanks for always wanting what's best for us. Help us cooperate.